Students in Spring Branch school district and in public schools across the nation will be faced with that question as they go through the lunch line, and they're not allowed to pass.

Starting this school year, students must take a fruit or a vegetable - both if they like - to comply with recent changes in the nation's school lunch program in a bid to reduce childhood obesity.

With thousands of students on free and reduced-price lunches, Spring Branch is no exception. Along with the fruit and vegetable requirement, a number of other changes have been put in place to improve the nutritional content of school lunches and breakfasts. Lunches will have more whole grains, more variety of vegetables, smaller portions of meat, calorie caps, less bad fats, less sodium and low-fat milk. In addition, a fruit will be offered with breakfast.

Chris Kamradt, the district's director of child nutrition services, said Spring Branch has been moving toward healthier meals for several years; so the changes brought by the Healthy, Hunger-free Kids Act of 2010 haven't greatly affected operations. For example, the district already had been serving brown rice. This year, the meat portions will be smaller and the district will offer more of a variety of vegetables, such as spinach. But he's concerned about waste, since students don't actually have to eat the fruit or vegetable.

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"We have to ensure (students) get it through their heads they have to take a fruit or vegetable," Kamradt said.

To that end, colorful posters depicting what a plate of food should look like regarding the appropriate portions of vegetables, fruit, grains, protein and milk will be displayed by the lunch line. Half the plate should be fruit and vegetables, a quarter grains and a quarter protein.

So, how does that translate to what a student might expect to get? Kamradt recently displayed a sample meal from the high school menu - teriyaki chicken, brown rice, steamed broccoli and carrots, an apple and carton of 1 percent milk. On the middle school menu, a typical meal features oven-baked chicken, mashed potatoes, cucumber-and-tomato salad, pears and 1 percent milk.

The cost of lunch ranges from $1.70 for elementary students to $1.95 for secondary students. Reduced-price lunches are 40 cents. The regular cost of breakfast is 75 cents, while a reduced breakfast is 30 cents. In November, more than half of the district's 33,636 students were receiving free or reduced-price meals through the district.

"There are a staggering number of children in our area who qualify for free and reduced lunches. That means they're consuming two thirds of their meals at school," King said. "So, if we can make them healthier, that's what we should be doing."